If you’re in the emergency room, you need care quickly. The majority of people who find themselves there are in an urgent situation where they need a doctor to take action to prevent serious injuries or even death.
Additionally, emergency rooms are responding to unexpected events such as a car accident, a workplace accident or a fall down the stairs. Doctors have to be flexible and capable of treating all sorts of issues, and they need to know how to do it quickly and precisely.
Those who work in emergency rooms are the first to admit that they work in “a busy, chaotic environment.” The goal is for the doctors to manage that chaos as much as possible and provide high-level care even when they have to rush or when things get somewhat out of control.
The problem with this is that rushing in any industry means that you’re more prone to mistakes. This is just as true if you work in a restaurant as it is if you work in an emergency department.
In the emergency room, though, rushing and making mistakes can cost people their lives. Even when people survive, they may not get very good care from the doctors who are supposed to be helping them. A doctor may overlook obvious signs or confuse two different patients with one another. These types of errors can make the situation far worse than it already was.
If a doctor’s mistake has negatively impacted your life or even cost the life of a loved one, it is very important that you know all of the legal rights you have.